Poland Asks for Swedish Help

Published tisdag 5 januari 2010 kl 12.49

Swedish prosecuting authorities have now officially received a formal request by Poland to assist in the investigation of the theft of the Auschwitz sign “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Sets You Free”). A spokesperson of the Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask told news agency TT, the Polish request is being handed over to the Prosecutor General in order to decide which Swedish authority will deal with the case.

The infamous sign of the former Nazi death camp in southern Poland was stolen on 18 December and found a few days later, cut into three pieces, in the woods near the Polish Baltic Sea Port of Gdynia. Five Polish men have been arrested for the theft, which prosecutors believe was commissioned by someone outside Poland. According to media reports, a wealthy British neo-Nazi ordered the theft via Swedish neo-Nazis.